[Cohenista]

A problem I've been having since making the switch is in maximizing windows, and I was hoping someone more knowledgeable might be able to help me out.

Basically, I like to maximize my windows. However, when I click on the green "plus" blob, more often than not they don't expand to take up the full desktop space, but instead only expand a bit beyond their pre-maximization boundaries. I'm happy that they don't cover the dock, but would like them to go all the way horizontally, so that all that's visible is the top Apple bar and the dock at the bottom, with the rest of the screen window-covered.

I hope that makes sense. At the moment, I'm having to resize post-maximization to achieve the desired result, and this is a real time-waster.

Thanks for your help!

[chris v]

You have encountered one of the fundamental differences between Mac OS and Windows. The green button in OS X will fit the window to its contents, not fill the entire monitor.

The idea is that you always have access to your desktop, and to other windows. Sorta just the way it works.

CV

[mdc]

take a word document for example. you have the page view set at 100% and it takes up around 600 pixels. if you click the green button it makes the document window big enough to show the page. it makes sense, if you resize it wider you are going to have a 600 pixel page in the middle of the screen and grey on either side. kinda pointless.

like chris v said, this is one of the fundamental differences.

if you open photoshop on windows you have a photoshop "environment" and all your photoshop documents are windows inside this environment. mac os' does not really have that "environment" for an app to work it. it is the documents that you are working on.

personally, i much rather prefer the mac os method.

[madmacgames]

You get used to it after awhile. when I 1st switched, I like you was kinda annoyed that I could not make Safari take up the whole screen with a button click. Then I got to thinking about it, and really there is no real point in making a window take up more space than it needs. Now I get extremely annoyed if Safari (or any other app) is taking up more screen space than it really needs.

You also don't get to see the beautiful window shading effects, etc if you maximize everything

[Synotic]

Originally posted by chris v:
You have encountered one of the fundamental differences between Mac OS and Windows. The green button in OS X will fit the window to its contents, not fill the entire monitor.

The idea is that you always have access to your desktop, and to other windws. Sorta just the way it works.

CV

Just to rewrite what chris said... clicking on the green button will toggle between your currently selected size and the full width required to display all the information without scrolling.

[wataru]

I personally hate full screen windows. For 90% of tasks there is no reason to use up that much screen space. It obscures the rest of your windows and is generally a pain in the ass. Plus it is often accompanied by MDI, which I also hate.

In other words, learn to love the freedom you get by not having maximized windows all the time.

[Brass]

Originally posted by Synotic:
Just to rewrite what chris said... clicking on the green button will toggle between your currently selected size and the full width required to display all the information without scrolling.

Just to clarify what Synotic said... clicking on the green button will actually toggle do whatever the application programmer has set it to do. Apple recommends to developers that it toggle between the user set size and the full size (vertically and horizontally) required to display as much of the information as possible.

However, the actual implementation is up to the application developer, NOT the OS (unlike Windows), so the behaviour in some applications is not necessarily what you'd expect.

On nomenclature, the green widget is not actually a "maximise" button at all, but (in OS 9 at least) was always called the "zoom" button. Not sure if that name is still used on OS X.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by madmacgames:
You get used to it after awhile. when I 1st switched, I like you was kinda annoyed that I could not make Safari take up the whole screen with a button click. Then I got to thinking about it, and really there is no real point in making a window take up more space than it needs. Now I get extremely annoyed if Safari (or any other app) is taking up more screen space than it really needs.

You also don't get to see the beautiful window shading effects, etc if you maximize everything

Yes, there is no real point in making a window take up more space than it needs. However, Safari is an exellent example of an app that needs to be full screen since the amount of space it needs can change from webpage to webpage and OSX doesn't automatically resize Safari to whatever size it needs to be, often resulting in horizontal drag bars.

The nice thing about Safari is that it will remember the last size and position you left it at.

[brachiator]

... Hence the term "window," rather than "wall" or "screen" ... Microsoft didn't always catch the underlying concepts.

[Big Mac]

This is definitely not the first thread to deal with this issue. I wonder if a sticky could be posted with the explanation, but perhaps it wouldn't even help. Have a look at some of the many redundant threads on the topic:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...aximize+window

[Cohenista]

Thanks everyone! Explanations make sense; probably take some getting used to, though.

[thePurpleGiant]

Originally posted by Cohenista:
Thanks everyone! Explanations make sense; probably take some getting used to, though.

It will take some getting used to, it's a subtle change that should eventually make you more productive. After a while, you will get frustrated on windows only ever seeing one program at a tme, whereas on your Mac you can easily drag and drop between multiple windows because you can see them all/

[Dale Sorel]

Originally posted by madmacgames:
I like you was kinda annoyed that I could not make Safari take up the whole screen with a button click.

Code:
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by Dale Sorel:

Code:
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);

for the non nerds, what does that mean?

[lookmark]

I'm keen on the (usually better) Mac difference of sizing-to-content... but still, it'd be nice if there was an *alternate* way to occasionally maximize a window, Windows-style... a way that worked globally across all apps. Wouldn't it?

Say, shift-clicking the green button. We don't need to see zoom in slow-mo, right?

[hyperb0le]

Originally posted by MrForgetable:
for the non nerds, what does that mean?

Well, he wrote it wrong. It should be:

Code:
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);

Drag that to your favorites bar, and when you click it, it moves the window to the top left corner and makes the window as big as possible. IE: Maximize.

As others have said though, maximizing windows sucks. The Zoom button (when implemented correctly) is better.

[EDIT]Grr... Apparently vB changes "javascript" into "java script." To get it working properly, just type the code into your address bar with "javascript" instead of "java script." Then drag THAT to your favorites bar[/EDIT]

[thePurpleGiant]

Originally posted by lookmark:
it'd be nice if there was an *alternate* way to occasionally maximize a window, Windows-style... a way that worked globally across all apps. Wouldn't it?

Say, shift-clicking the green button. We don't need to see zoom in slow-mo, right?

There used to be, or still is, only in some programs though. I'm not sure why, or which ones, but in some programs option-clicking the green button will mazimise, instead of zoom. It'd be nice if this was consistent across all apps, but it seems like only early os-x apps did this for some reason.

[monkeybrain]

I agree you should be able to maximise by holding a key and clicking zoom. Sometimes you want a program to take the whole screen and get rid of all other distractions on the screen.

Browsers (you can still drag to desktop when maximised because of the space next to the dock) and sometimes word documents can benefit from maximisation.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by Brass:
Just to clarify what Synotic said... clicking on the green button will actually toggle do whatever the application programmer has set it to do. Apple recommends to developers that it toggle between the user set size and the full size (vertically and horizontally) required to display as much of the information as possible.

However, the actual implementation is up to the application developer, NOT the OS (unlike Windows), so the behaviour in some applications is not necessarily what you'd expect.

On nomenclature, the green widget is not actually a "maximise" button at all, but (in OS 9 at least) was always called the "zoom" button. Not sure if that name is still used on OS X.

Thanks for that clarification Brass. All too often I see OS X getting blamed for the behavior of a particular app's maximize functionality.
I also don't like an app that maximizes to full screen without the need to do it.